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American TV Videos: Idents

Oprah and the launch of OWN.

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Launching on January 1st 2011, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network is a natural extension of the hyper-popular daytime talk show, and surely one of the few networks in the world built around a single figure.

With Oprah’s recent visit to Australia, the nation has grown even more enamored with the women and her message, and despite my gender-and-age I’ll happily admit that she produces an incredible show with a relentless message of personal growth, interwoven with philosophy aligned with the likes of Jung or Frankl.

Two years in the making, Philadelphia based BIGSMACK designed the new on-air look through “the numerous branding twists and turns” taken prior to the channel launch. On the technical side, the largely animated look of the network is complimented by a number of organic touches:

To create the on-air look BIGSMACK shot an array of natural elements — including light reflected through a variety of objects like crystal and Plexiglas, as well as water, glitter and particle dust — on a soundstage using a Canon 5D camera. That organic basis was then composited with digital elements animated using Cinema 4D and Adobe After Effects.

The montage gives a taste of the IDs, menus, bumpers and lower thirds created for the network, along with the colour coding of the various dayparts (orange mornings, green afternoons and purple evenings).

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Ten Network Videos: Idents

The first four minutes of Eleven.

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Australia’s newest television station is on the air. Check out the launch and opening minutes of the new channel in this video. Now what’s launching next..

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Ten Network Videos: Idents

Get ready to say He11o.

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January 11th, 2011 will see the launch of a new free to air Australian television channel aptly enough called Eleven. The new channel will be the last (for now) of the free to air multichannels and the first general entertainment offering from Ten, who currently only offer a sports channel to compliment their main offering.

A joint venture between CBS and Channel Ten the new channel is aimed at the 13-29 year old crowd, and will become the new home of The Simpsons and long suffering soap Neighbours. Eleven is part of a larger strategic change within Ten that includes extending nightly news through primetime slots previously occupied by The Simpsons and Neighbours.

As with all things the Ten Network do, this new channel has fairly spot on branding and targeting along with the programming to back it up. Something that can’t entirely be said for 7mate or GEM.

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BBC One Channel Five ITV Videos: Idents

Merry Christmas from the BBC, ITV and Five.

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Last year it was the Doctor and his TARDIS, this year the BBC gets homely with some Christmas lights to celebrate the festive season. Meanwhile ITV1 and Five deliver some slightly less ambitious holiday idents.

– Big thanks to Craig for the videos.

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Videos: Idents

Planes, cars and Blackpool.

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Channel 4 have been producing some of the most beautifully executed and conceptually coherent idents on television for nearly six years now.

Yesterday they introduced three new spots (well two if you don’t count the 3D spot) with the clear stand out being the epic airplane graveyard ident.

Again, an absolute triumph in branding and incomparable to local offerings. For the full set of Channel 4 idents stretching back to the beginning look here.

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American TV Videos: Idents

Left wing or right wing? MSNBC leans forward.

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UPDATE: Fox News have responded with their own “Move Forward” spots.

American cable news network MSNBC recently unveiled a new slogan and brand positioning. Directed by Spike Lee, these new spots ask us to Lean Forward, and suggests that the “the future belongs to the fearless”.

Conceptually its a poignant and aspirational message, likely to be identifiable to those generally offended by Fox News. And while Jon Stewart isn’t thrilled with it, it’s hard not to like the idea, with comparisons to Think Different sure to arise.

Unfortunately I’m not sure the execution of these two promos, filled with stock footage and web clips live up to the gravity of the message trying to be conveyed.

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Nine Network Seven Network Videos: Idents

One for the ladies, one for the fellas.

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Gem from the Nine Network, and 7mate from the Seven Network both launched over the weekend, although not in that order.

Long before digital multichannelling got too interesting in Australia I pondered how the commercial networks would approach the tricky task of extending their brands to multiple channels. Channel 4 have done a great job naming their portfolio of channels under the “4” brand, while the UKTV group have adopted individual brands for each of their many channels.

These two approaches are currently playing out in Australia, with the Seven Network now extending its brand name and logo to 7two and 7mate, while Channel Nine has launched Go! and Gem. Personally I think the impending launch of Eleven is the best branding we’ve seen on a commercial multichannel yet, but that said I’m pretty hot for any branding Channel Ten comes up with.

As for this weekend Gem looks pretty and is a nice start, although perhaps something you might see on an inflight channel, 7mate on the other hand is less a brand and more of a punchline, so lets just say neither of them bowled me over.

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European TV Videos: Idents

Everything’s the same except the name.

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British network Virgin 1 launched in 2007 as the flagship general entertainment channel of the newly rebranded Virgin Media (formerly NTL Telewest).

However with Virgin Media offloading its channel group to British Sky Broadcasting earlier this year, the new owners decided to ditch the Virgin brand (perhaps understandably from their point of view) and relaunch it as simply Channel One.

Before, after and during videos above.

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ABC1 Videos: Idents

Enter the Lissajous.

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Encapsulating the scope and relevance of the national broadcaster is the goal of this new brand campaign, and having people jump into the embrace of the ABC’s famous lissajous is the approach they’ve taken.

Beautifully produced and visually distinct these new spots have the unenviable challenge of trying to represent an organisation with as much history and depth as the ABC, something any thirty second promo will struggle to achieve.

Created by Sydney agency Moon.

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Foxtel Videos: Idents

The ever retro TV1 steps into the widescreen.

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One of Australia’s longest running subscription television networks TV1 began broadcasting in widescreen for the first time last week (sounds quaint I know).

To mark the occasion they refreshed their look with a heavy emphasis on branding the various day parts, and further reinforcing the retro yet modern feel.

TV1 have maintained a consistently strong on-air brand without actually straying too far from their core look as you can see in this 2006 post.

– Thanks to Jackie from zspace for the videos.